I have a two and 1/2 month old who wakes up everytime we lay her down in her crib for nap time. We generally have to rock her to get her to sleep in the first place. She is going to start daycare soon and I am concerned she will not nap for them. I have only three weeks left before that and am hoping to get her on some sort of napping routine. Any suggestions?
Also, she has acid reflux so we have to hold her upright for at least 15 minutes before we lay her down. Thanks for you help!!
It seems that my daughter just decided to fall asleep on her own. I have laid her down when she is semi-sleepy and it worked! Of course not everytime, but I figure it's a work in progress. Thanks for all the help!!
It has been my experience that my children will nap for eveyone except me! When my son (who was notorious for putting up a fight at nap time) went to daycare, he mysteriously was willing to listen to all of his teacher's requests, including nap time. Don't worry too much about it for now.
A. try playing some very soft mood music such as violin, spring brook running, etc that will help put her in a more relaxed mood and deeper sleep while you are rocking and leave the music on once you lay her down. Hope this works for you.
I hate to say this, but putting her down and letting her soothe herself it about the only thing that worked for me. I let both my children cry for up to 10 minutes and NO LONGER. Each day the time they would cry was less and less. Now I can lay them down to sleep and they fall asleep before I even walk out of the room. Trust me it hurt A LOT to hear them cry, but i knew it would work. Its a toally different story if they are sick though. I then would hold them until they would be half asleep and then put them down.
Hi A.
I too was worried about my baby being on a set schedule when she started at her sitter. The great thing about her being around other children is she adopted their schedule and routines. She started napping because she saw all the other children doing so. She started doing MANY tasks when she had other children to emulate...chatting, sitting up etc. Keep working on it with her but don't worry too much.
We also purchased a musical mobile that dispays bears on the ceiling. She watches that and puts herself to sleep, everynight. We push play on the music and she knows when she sees the teddy bear and hears the music, its time for bed.
T.
My son was the same way at that age, and I was worried about the same thing. I definitely second daycare being a big help. It took a few days for him to adjust to the noises, but they swaddled him and got him into a routine. Please don't be concerned about her not napping for them - they're pros at getting babies to sleep!
Do whatever you need to now to have her nap at home, enjoy your time with her at home and don't worry about giving daycare a baby with a perfect nap schedule - things will work out, I promise!
Also, just a heads up ... things change later, too! My son is now 4 1/2 months and had a great nap routine for a while and changing to be a cat napper now with a longer sleep period at night. So, their sleep patterns are always evolving. Good luck!
Have you tried the swaddle blankets? They're $9.99 at Babies R Us and come in cotton or fleece. Babies love to be swaddled at that age. I would try that. I know it's worked for several other mothers I know.
The day care my son goes to often sleeps the babies in a swing instead of a crib. You should check with the daycare, ask them lots of questions on how they plan to care for your child. I'm sure your's will not be the first baby with this habit. They may be well prepared for it!
When she gets a little older, I would highly reccommend Dr Ferber's "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems". It was a God-send for me.
Don't worry about a napping routine, she will be in a new/different environment, so things will change.
There may be too much noise there and she won't nap at all or they may keep her real busy and she will nap because she is worn out or just tired.
Both my children took a morning/afternoon nap no matter what, they were great nappers !
It is ok to rock her before a nap but try not to put her to sleep that way. Lay her down sleepy but not asleep so she can learn to put herself to sleep on her own. If she cries when you lay her down try to console her w/o picking her up. if she is unconsolable then pick her up, calm her down, and put her right back in the crib. keep repeating the process. the first few times it may take an hour of you doing the same steps over and over. I have 6 mos old twins and my daughter is great at putting herself to sleep for naps and at night sleeps 11-12 hrs but my son did the same as yours where he cried when you put him down. he still does sometimes but is getting better and is sleeping more now during naptime and slept 9 hours last night. Sleep begets sleep...so you want her to be napping well. Best of luck!
Have you tried to put a heating pad under her sheet
on low? we had a simular problem with our oldest
child and the doc we used said for us to try that
on her.he also said to wrap it loosely with a towel
and then place it under her. i think they now have
something like that at walmart. but i'm not for
sure.also Babies-r-us might have something close
to that too.
i hope you find something that works for you both.
What I did with my son I gave him something that smelled like his dad and I and we taped our voices reading a nighttime story to him. The daycare loved it and it worked.
Get the book The Baby Whisperer and do everything it says! It worked great for me. Good Luck!
Daycare may turn out to be your greatest ally in getting your baby to sleep. I always had trouble putting my son down for a nap until he started daycare. Now I just lay him in the crib and say "naptime" and he puts himself to sleep for 1-2 hrs.
He learned to do this in daycare. :)
I second the swaddling suggestion as well. And a mobile that plays soothing music. The Ocean Wonders Aquarium mobile is the best. Another good idea is to always play the same music when you put her to sleep so she gets accustomed to falling asleep everytime she hears it. Thats what my daycare does. They play "naptime" music. Its the Baby Einstein Classic Lullaby CD. I went ahead and bought it for myself so that I could play it for my son every time I put him to sleep and it worked like a charm. Now putting him down for a nap and bedtime is SO easy. :)
